Justine's Book Journal

7th Blog

2005-05-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

Point of View is the vantage point through which the writer tells his story. Identify the type of point of view used in your book (first person, third person limited, third person objective, omniscient). Explain how you know this is the correct point of view.

Angela's Ashes is written in first person. The main charachter involved in the sotry is telling thir side of the story through their own personal point of view. Your hearing one side of the story, theres only. They don't much foreshadowing becuase you are going through the adventure with the character itself.

6th Blog

2005-05-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

2. An antagonist is the character or force which blocks the main
character. Who or what is the antagonist of your book? How does the
antagonist work against the book's protagonist?

The antagonist of this book is probably Malachy (the dad), because his actions keep the McCourts penniless. While his family is starving, and his children catch diseases caused by there weakness and starvation, he drinks and drinks and comes home noisily through the city streets. Malachy more than likely drinks himself into a daze to minimize the pain he is feeling because of the deaths of his children. His drinking has become more than just a way to forget about his pain. It has become a severe problem that he just can't seem to get ride of. He has "The drink" as they call it in the novel, which affects many Irish-men during this time. This is problem is continually jeopardizing the survival of his own family. In spite of this, the boys still treasure the time they get to spend with there father when he is on a happier note. Malachy also seems to make a mistake against his family by going to work in England, abandoning his family without his emotional or financial support.

5th Blog

2005-05-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

The family has just reached Ireland, and find a place to stay in a one room house in Lemrick after they weren't able to stay with Malachy's family. Conditions remain bad, Malachy can't find work, and is getting handouts fom the Labor Exchange. And Angela is going to a place to get house, shoes, groceries etc. Oliver, one of the twins gets sick, and dies in this house. Angela is so torn up about this death again that they decide its time to move out of this house. They move into a house that is near a school the boys will attend. They enjoy this house great but Eugene, the other twin, miss "ollie" greatly. He can't seem to comprehend the fact that he's gone. Eugene also dies in this house by the school. The whole family comes to gather in this house, and Angela's brother, the one who was droped on his head, volenteers to put Eugene in the casket because noone else will. The Carraige driver shows up drunk and Angela is deeply offended. This proves to be too much for them, she can't stand thinking of how Eugene would look out the window for ollie everday, this haunts her and they decide to move yet again.

14. Predict what is going to happen next in your book. Make sure that your prediction is logical and is based on events which have already occurred. (Characters shouldn't act in a way that is completely different from their actions so far.)

I predict that Malachy will still have troubles finding a job. Maybe there will be more losses in the family, either the mother or another child. Also, I'm guessing Malachy will have an extremely difficult time with drinking and it will get worse. Maybe Frankie will end up having to be the head of the family?.

4th Blog

2005-04-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

This segment describes the difficulties and the joys of Frank’s childhood in New York. He remembers listening to his father’s many songs and hearing his stories. His favorite of these stories are the ones he tells about Cuchulain. This chapter discusses how Malachy loves his children but he constantly drinks and loses jobs. He spends his wages at the pub, which makes Angela angry, and makes the family go hungry.They have a new daughter, Margaret, who Malachy admires so much he decidesto stop drinking. But, twords the end of my reading Margaret dies. Both Angela and Malachy are extremely upset about this death. Her neighbours try and help, but it doesnt work. Since the family is in such terrible shape they are headed off to Ireland again to see Angela's mother.

4. A flat character has only one or two personality traits and can be
summed up in one sentence. Name one character in your book who would be considered a flat character. Describe the personality of this character.

A flat character in this book would be Margret. Margret was only alive for a short period of time and her personality remaind constant throughout her life in this story. She was just a beautiful brown-haired baby, whome her parents adored.

3rd Blog

2005-04-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

In Angela's aAshes so far, we have been introduced to all of the main characters. The family is living in a poor urban area, and the dad is out of work. There are 5 children Frankie, Malachy, Oliver and Eugene, and Margaret who passed away. The mother and father are constantly arguing over the fact that he can't find work, and the family is short on money.

The protagonist of my novel would probably be Frankie. Frankie is the eldest of the children. Although Frankie doesn't try to get on peoples bad sides, he often finds himself there. People say that he is like his father, who is someone that most people dissaprove of. He is fond of his fathers stories, while still understanding his mother's concern with Malachy. He is basically just a little irish boy living in a time short of money and food trying his best to help his parents and siblings make it through.

Blog # 2

2005-04-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

The setting of Angela's Ashes is in New York, New York. They main characters are originally from different parts of Ireland. Angela, from Limerick, and Malachy, from Northern Ireland. This setting, so far, has played an important role for various reasons. There is a sense of prejudicious from Angela's side of the family to Malachy, because of where he is from. Angela's family considers themselves to be better than him, and think of him as Protestant dirt. This will more than likely affect the outcome of many events in the story, as it continues to progress.

Angela's Ashes-First Entry

2005-04-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

Title of the novel: Angela's Ashes
Author: Frank McCourt
Number of Pages: 362
Publisher and copeyright: Copyright 1996 by Frank McCourt; Published by Simon & Schuster
I selected Angela's Ashes because I heard from people in my family that it was a pretty good book. Also, at my house we have the piano music for the motion picture, and I really like that so I thought it'd make it interesting to know the story behind the music.
I looks liek a book based on a true story of times in the olden days. Maybe even about a past tradgedy.

Blog #9

2005-03-18T07:51:00.000-08:00

The main character in the book Holes is Stanley Yelnats. Stanley is an overweight boy who doesn’t have any friends from his original school and is often picked on by his fellow classmates and by his school bully. In the beginning of the novel Stanley was just a big kid who kept getting stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was concerned about pleasing the other people he was living with, but kept to himself. Stanley gradually develops physical and personal strength. He tries not to get in trouble with the people that threaten him, but at the same time he also stands up for his own right and for his friends own rights. But, as the novel continued Stanly grew to be self-confident, and gained a life long friend, Zero. He grew to be a caring individual that actually, and as the story concluded realized he was actually in the right place at the right time.

Holes is about a boy named Stanley, who is cursed by the bad luck placed on his great-great-grandfather, and is sent to a juvenile delinquent camp for stealing a pair of tennis shoes. He, along with the boys at Camp Green Lake are asked to dig holes everyday. Over the course of the story Stanley and Zero, a fellow boy at the camp, become good friends. They realize that they have a special relation to each other, dating back to the time of Stanley’s great-great-grandfather, and Zero’s great-great-grandmother. The two make the connection that Camp Green Lake is actually the site where some great historical treasure is to be found, and that’s why the campers are forced to dig there. Together they find Stanley’s grandpa’s stolen treasure and escape from camp when there lawyers come to there rescue. The homeless Zero, ends the story with a home, Stanley’s dad has finally completed his dream of inventing a use for old tennis shoes, and Stanley is no longer in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The story took place at Camp Green Lake, a hot dried up lake in Texas in the end of the 2oth century. This setting relates to both the past and future in this novel. For over a hundred years ago a Kathrine Barlow, the outlaw who stole the treasure from Stanley’s unlucky great-great-grandfather, lived in this area. This relates to the theme of how Stanley and Zero completed the journey that Stanley’s grandfather and Zeros grandmother were unable to fulfill.

The climax of Holes occurs when Stanley steals Mr. Sir's truck and runs away; he has reached the point of no return. He has run away and now his lot is with Zero, wherever that may take him. Stanley decides that he needs to help his friend Zero, so he steals Mr. Sir’s truck and takes off. The truck crashes and he runs out of it, just hoping to find his friend, and not knowing what is to come of them.

The four main themes of this book are: The power of fate to determine events; the benefits of friendship; the destructive nature of cruelty; the importance of history in everyday life. The author is saying that fate has something to do with Stanley and Zero meeting and discovering the treasure, that this was not just a coincidence. Also, there is the theme that when you have a truly good friendship there are many benefits to it. There is someone to be with, someone who has your back, and someone you can confide in. The destructive nature of cruelty is shown in the past, when the residents of green lake resulted in killing Sam, an innocent man, because they wanted to find an outlaw’s treasure, and how in the modern time when the warden was willing to put these kids through so much, and be so mean to them just to find the same treasure that her ancestors were looking for a 100 yrs ago. Lastly, there’s the theme about the fact that history is important in everyday life. Stanley, Zero, and the Warden were all, almost, repeating and finishing the past. They all descended from people who were in the initial conflict and now, in this story, it is like they are finishing the problem that was laid out for them.

Scene from another point of view

2005-03-03T09:57:00.000-08:00

This is the scene where Stanley, The Warden, and Mr. Sir are all in The Warden's office discusing the sunflower seed episode. I'm going to write it in Stanley's point of view.

I knew I had to tell The Warden my story, so here it goes. "While Mr. Sir was filling the canteens, I snuck into the truck and stole his sack of sunflower seeds." Whew that was easier than I thought.
"I see," said the Warden as she turned to Mr. Sir and asked him if thats why he brought me here.
Mr. Sir of course said yeah, but he thought I was lying to him. He thinks someone else stole the sack, and that I was just covering up for X-Ray or somebody else. "It was a twenty-pund sack, and he claims to have eaten it all by himself."
That was a good point, I should have thought of that before.
"I see," she said again.
God, does anything else ever come outa that mouth! It's my turn to make a statement now; I told them that the sack wasn't full when I took it, and that I spilt a whole lot of it in my hole if they wanted to check.
The Warden directed me into the next room, and told me to bring her this small flowered case from the dresser. I brought it out to her and placed it on the glass table in front of her. She opened it; it was a make up case, why did I have to bring this to her?
Now, I really don't understand what the big deal about this was, because honestly no one really cares what the lady looks like out here and she could primp herself on her own time for all I care.
She picked out a small jar of dark-red nail polish and held it up for my viewing. She asked if I saw it, of course I said yes and then she went on to say how she made it special, and that you couldn't get this kind of thing in stores; big deal I thought.
But then, she asked us if we wanted to know what the secret ingrediant was. I shook my head yes, and she told me it was Rattlesnake venom. Can you believe that??? I wonder what the lady is going to do with that.......

Setting of Novel

2005-02-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

This novel takes place at Camp Green Lake, a correctional camp for juveniles. It's a dry, barren place in the middle of nowhere. The author explains how hot and dry it is, and the sense of nothingness that is always present. The way the author describes this place makes it appear harsh and undesirable to the reader. Holes, so far in the book, has taken place in the same area. There is no real scenery change, and all the action has occured out in the open, digging holes.

Quotes

2005-02-17T18:23:00.000-08:00

Quote #1
"One thing was certain: They weren't just digging to "build character." They were definitely looking for something. And whatever they were looking for, they were looking in the wrong place."-pg 71

I think this quotation give us a context clue about something that will happen later on in this story. Maybe towards the end we (the reader) will discover what it is that the warden is looking for, and why she's going to so much trouble to find it. Also, It makes you wonder if Stanley will ever tell where the treasure was really found, so that they'll be looking in the right area, or if he will keep it to himself.

Quote #2
"I want to learn to read and write," said Zero......."Sorry," Stanley said. "I don't know how to teach."
"You don't have to teach me to wrtie," said Zero. "Just to read. I don't have anybody to write to."
(Stanley) "His muscles and hands weren't the only parts of his body that had toughened over the past several weeks. His heart had hardened as well."-pg 82

This passage, I think, possibly gives clues towards why Zero isn't included with the "group." Maybe, he is always at the end of the line, and is treated like he's nothing because the other guys think he is dumb, or not as smart as them, because he can't read or write like all of them. It also makes me wonder what kind of background Zero came from because he states that he has no one to wrtie to. Lastly, I have noticed a change in Stanley, as stated in the passage, "His heart had hardened as well", he has grown alot more moody, and is not as helpful or talkative. I'm waiting to see whether this change is positive or negative.

Character Analysis

2005-02-17T16:37:00.000-08:00

Stanley is the new kid at camp and now he has the nickname "Caveman" this makes him feel like he is part of the group. Stanley is a large, and sort of the quiet type, but not so quiet that he's extremely shy, I also believe he has extremely good intentions. He is basically a nice kid that gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He just wantes to be accepted at camp, and has a hope to make new friends. The author never really tells us much about Stanley's personality, they leave it up to the reader to make there own decisions about their feelings about him.

Summary

2005-02-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

Stanely has just gotten sent to Camp Green Lake, a camp for problem children. He was sent here because he stole a pair of shoes from a famous baseball player that were about to be sold for a charity auction. Actually, he didn't actually steal them, they fell from an overpass right into his hands. This story was hard for the judges to believe so he got on a bus and headed to camp. Camp Green Lake was not green, and there was no lake. He lives in tent D with X-Ray, Magnet, Armpit, Zigzag, Zero, and Squid. At camp, you're expected to dig a single hole each day; this hole must be 5 ft deep and 5ft across. The chapter ended with Stanely attempting to dig his first hole, and realizes that it is much harder than he anticipated.

Holes

2005-01-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

Title:Holes
The authors of this book is Louis Sachar. There is 233 pages in this novel.It was published by Scholastic INC. Copeywritten in 1998 by Louis Sachar. I selected this novel because I have heard many people comment on how they really liked this book and so on. Also, I had this book laying around my house and I figured I shouldn't just let it sit there. From the cover I get the impression that there will be a young boy as the main character, and possible that they will be digging holes.